Chapter 426: Advancing to a 2.9 Level Civilization

(This chapter is a reflection on the Divine Vessel Civilization and an informative description of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Viewer discretion is advised.)

This calamity was a trial of civilization for the Divine Vessel, as well as a selection process, eliminating those civilizations with wavering faith. It was yet another rebirth for the Divine Vessel Civilization from the ashes of destruction.

For the Divine Vessel Civilization, it was also the final dawn breaking through the Dark Forest. At this moment, the Divine Vessel Civilization seemed to have seen a light finally penetrate the darkness of the Dark Forest.

Everyone held boundless confidence in the future, and the Divine Vessel Civilization had truly found its soul.

*

Era of the Divine Vessel 430,000 years

This was a moment destined to be recorded in history books, as the Divine Vessel Civilization, after enduring countless storms, finally became a 2.9 level civilization.

The arrival of this moment came earlier than anyone had anticipated.

This advancement was largely due to the great war with the Fungus Civilization. The war had sparked the infinite potential of the Divine Vessel, deepening its understanding of consciousness and high-dimensional space.

After the war, the deep interaction between the Divine Vessel Civilization and the Fungus Civilization triggered another major explosion in the technological field of the Divine Vessel Civilization, which finally mastered high-dimensional space completely.

At this moment, the Divine Vessel Civilization stood at an unprecedented height, inspecting and understanding the universe with a brand-new perspective and method.

At this moment, the Divine Vessel Civilization had reached the highest peak beneath the Dark Forest.

Looking back,

The despair and helplessness once faced against Trisolaris, the hardships and dangers encountered during the long journeys, all seemed like solid foundations on the road to glory.

Every drop of sweat, every act of persistence, had turned into the glory and brilliance of this moment.

All the efforts and perseverance now turned into a sigh of relief, all worth it.

In the future, the Divine Vessel Civilization would move forward with more stable steps, pushing farther.

The Divine Vessel would never allow itself to stop in the final step. Having traversed the sea of stars, the Divine Vessel Civilization would not limit its view to just that.

Just as the Fungus Civilization said, the Wallfacers made the Divine Vessel Civilization, and the Divine Vessel Civilization made the Wallfacers.

The relentless exploration and effort of the Divine Vessel Civilization over more than four hundred thousand years,

finally received its ultimate reward.

*

Era of the Divine Vessel 500,000 years.

The Divine Vessel Civilization arrived at the core region of the Milky Way Galaxy, 26,000 light years from Earth.

Many people think that at the very center of the Milky Way Galaxy, there is a massive black hole surrounded by countless constant stars.

This claim is correct, but the core of the Milky Way Galaxy is far more complex than humans can imagine.

Here, the density of constant stars is far beyond human imagination. In just a 3.26 light-year range, a second gap, there are 42 million constant stars crammed.

Among these stars, there are active constant stars and star clusters that orbit around the central black hole at astonishing speeds, some even reaching a terrifying 3% of light speed. This commands awe for the physical environment here.

Even more extreme is that the physical environment and structure here are unusually complex. Interstellar gas and dust are widespread, and their induced shockwaves and turbulence can form massive high-energy phenomena.

As previously mentioned, the central region of the Milky Way Galaxy is extraordinarily bright.

When matter enters the black hole's accretion disk, it is subjected to extreme temperatures and pressures, causing enormous radiation and energy release.

In addition, the presence of high-energy particles, radio emissions, and a large amount of interstellar dust make the "brightness" here reach an astonishing level.

Of course, this brightness is full of danger, and even solid steel here would instantly melt into a gaseous state.

This region is undoubtedly a forbidden zone for civilizations below level 2.0. The extreme complexity of the environment alone is enough to destroy their fragile existence.

The central region of the Milky Way Galaxy is named Sagittarius A.

This area contains numerous astonishing astronomical phenomena. Within a span of about 25 light-years, there exists a supernova remnant called Sagittarius A East Star;

while an appearance of a three-armed spiral structure, composed of interstellar dust and gas clouds, is named Centaurus A West Star.

However, the most attention-grabbing feature is the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Its mass is approximately 4.1 to 4.31 million times that of the Sun and is named Sagittarius A*.

The event horizon radius of this black hole reaches 12.7 million kilometers, which is 33 times the distance of Earth-Moon. And its accretion disk has expanded to about 58 million kilometers, 150 times the Earth-Moon distance.

Although this black hole is so vast, it is still considered relatively mild. This is because it lacks powerful jet streams, making it appear even more mysterious and elusive.

*

The Divine Vessel Civilization did not come to this region to study its extremely complex environment.

Their true goal was this black hole.

The current technological theories of the Divine Vessel Civilization had reached their limits, they had exhausted all mysteries of the universe, from microscopic particles to the macrocosm, from the origins of time to the ends of space, their theoretical system was almost flawlessly perfect.

In the microscopic realm, their understanding had delved into the Planck scale, and they had nearly mastered the forces of high-dimensional microcosm.

Yet, in this universe, there remained one fortress they had yet to conquer,

and that was the black hole singularity.

Within the black hole singularity, all physical laws seemed to be ruthlessly devoured, even causality—the cornerstone of the universe's logic—vanished.

In studying science, the most important and fundamental rule is causality, the key to understanding the mechanisms of the world.

However, the rationality of civilization, when touching the profound nature of the universe, inevitably reveals its limitations, and their understanding of causality is inherently flawed.

All axioms are applied by induction, yet induction is the natural enemy of all axioms.

Causality is, in fact, a kind of mental illusion, an induction based on rational thought derived from sensory experiences.

As it was in the past, so it is now, and so it must be in the future.

Yet, in the black hole singularity, time seemed eternally frozen, and the chains of causality were broken, leaving behind a realm of chaos and irresolution.

Although the Divine Vessel Civilization had integrated high-dimensional sphere quantum theory to explain the black hole singularity issue,

as their understanding of high-dimensions developed, the behavior of the black hole singularity deviated so dramatically from their expectations, as if it were an eternally untamable alien beast that could not correct its deviant trajectory.

In the progression of the Divine Vessel Civilization to its current level, a voice seemed to tell them that the ultimate understanding lay within the singularity.

The black hole singularity is also the singularity of the universe, and possibly the starting point of ultimate consciousness.

PS: Explaining the second gap, it is also a unit of length equivalent to 3.26 light-years.

Why is this distance unit often used in astronomy? The reason is simple: astronomical distances are usually unmeasurable directly, and a common method is to measure angles.

Seconds are angles, with 1 degree equal to 60 minutes, and 1 minute equating to 60 seconds. For instance, if measuring the angle between a constant star and the Ecliptic Plane on both the summer and winter solstices, since the measurement points differ by two astronomical units, there will inevitably be a very small angle difference.

If there is a difference of one second, imagine a triangle: the vertex angle is one second, the base is two astronomical units, and by the sine rule, the distance of this star from Earth is 3.26 light-years.

This method can only measure the distance to stars relatively close to Earth; it does not work for greater distances.

For longer distances, the Cepheid variable stars measurement method is used, which is also straightforward. Stars of the same brightness, the farther they are from us, the dimmer they appear.

So by determining the actual brightness of a star and comparing it with the observed brightness, the distance can be established. And with Cepheid variable stars, their brightness can be determined by their light variation period, naturally establishing their distance from us.

Sphere quantum theory, while intricate in nature, does not need to be deeply understood by the average person. Its essence is the belief that time and space are also discrete and quantized.

The black hole singularity is more akin to a mathematical point; sphere quantum theory avoids such special solutions and can effectively solve the black hole singularity problems.